I
"You don't care about society, then, mademoiselle?"
"You won't tell any one, will you?--but I always feel as though I've
swallowed my tongue when I go out. That's the effect society has on me.
Perhaps it is that I've had no luck. The young men I have met are all
very serious, they are my brother's friends--quotation young men, I call
them. As to the girls, one can only talk to them about the last sermon
they have heard, the last piece of music they have learned, or their
last new dress. Conversation with my contemporaries is somewhat
restricted."
"And you live in the country all the year round, do you not?"
"Yes, but we are so near to Paris. Is the piece good they have just been
playing at the Opéra Comique? Have you seen it?"
"Yes, it's charming--the music is very fine. All Paris was at the first
night--I never go to the theatre except on first nights."
"Just fancy, they never take me to any theatre except the Opéra Comique
and the Français, and only to the Français when there is a classical
piece on. I think they are terribly dull, classical pieces. Only to
think that they won't let me go to the Palais Royal! I read the pieces
though. I spent a long time learning 'The Mountebanks' by heart. You are
very lucky, for you can go anywhere. The other evening my sister and my
brother-in-law had a great discussion about the Opera Ball. Is it true
that it is quite impossible to go to it?"
"Impossible? Well----"
"I mean--for instance, if you were married, would you take your wife,
just once, to see it?"
"If I were married I would not even take----"
"Your mother-in-law. Is that what you were going to say? Is it so
dreadful--really?"
"Well, in the first place, the company is----"
"Variegated? I know what that's like. But then it's the same everywhere.
Every one goes to the Marche and the company is mixed enough there. One
sees ladies, who are rather queer, drinking champagne in their
carriages. Then, too, the Bois de Boulogne! How dull it is to be a
_young person_, don't you think so?"
"What an idea! Why should it be? On the contrary, it seems to me----"
"I should like to see you in my place. You would soon find out what a
bore it is to be always proper. We are allowed to dance, but do you
imagine that we can talk to our partner? We may say 'Yes,' 'No,' 'No,'
'Yes,' and that's all! We must always keep to monosyllables, as that is
considered proper. You see how delightful our existence is. And for
everything it is just the same. If we want to be very proper we have to
act like simpletons; and for my part I cannot do it. Then we are
supposed to stop and prattle to persons of our own sex. And if we go off
and leave them and are seen talking to men instead--oh, well, I've had
lectures enough from mamma about that! Reading is another thing that is
not at all proper. Until two years ago I was not allowed to read the
serials in the newspaper, and now I have to skip the crimes in the news
of the day, as they are not quite proper.
"Then, too, with the accomplishments we are allowed to learn, we must
not go beyond a certain average. We may learn duets and pencil drawing,
but if we want anything more, why, it's affectation on our part. I go in
for oil-painting, for instance, and that is the despair of my family. I
ought only to paint roses and in water-colours. There's quite a current
here, though, isn't there? I can scarcely stand."
This was said in an arm of the Seine just between Briche and the Île
Saint Denis. The girl and the young man who were conversing were in the
water. They had been swimming until they were tired, and now, carried
along by the current, they had caught hold of a rope which was fastened
to one of the large boats stationed along the banks of the island. The
force of the water rocked them both gently at the end of the tight,
quivering rope. They kept sinking and then rising again. The water was
beating against the young girl's breast; it filled out her woollen
bathing-dress right up to the neck, while from behind little waves kept
dashing over her which a moment later were nothing but dewdrops hanging
from her ears.
She was rather higher up than the young man and had her arms out of the
water, her wrists turned round in order to hold the rope more firmly,
and her back against the black wood of the boat. Instinctively she kept
drawing back as the young man, swayed by the strong current, approached
her. Her whole attitude, as she shrank back, suspended from the rope,
reminded one of those sea goddesses which sculptors carve upon galleys.
A slight tremor, caused partly by the cold and partly by the movement of
the river, gave her something of the undulation of the water.
"Ah, now this, for instance," she continued, "cannot be at all
proper--to be swimming here with you. If we were at the seaside it would
be quite different. We should have just the same bathing costumes as
these, and we should come out of a bathing-van just as we have come out
of the house. We should have walked across the beach just as we have
walked along the river bank, and we should be in the water to the same
depth, absolutely like this. The waves would roll us about as this
current does, but it would not be the same thing at all; simply because
the Seine water is not proper! Oh, dear! I'm getting so hungry--are
you?"
"Well, I fancy I shall do justice to dinner."
"Ah! I warn you that I eat."
"Really, mademoiselle?"
"Yes, there is nothing poetical about me at meal-times. If you imagine
that I have no appetite you are quite mistaken. You are in the same club
as my brother-in-law, are you not?"
"Yes, I am in M. Davarande's club."
"Are there many married men in it?"
"Yes, a great many."
"How odd! I cannot understand why a man marries. If I had been a man it
seems to me that I should never have thought of marrying."
"Fortunately you are a woman."
"Ah, yes, that's another of our misfortunes, we women cannot stay
unmarried. But will you tell me why a man joins a club when he is
married?"
"Oh, one has to be in a club--especially in Paris. Every man of any
standing--if only for the sake of going in there for a smoke."
"What! do you mean to say that there are any wives nowadays without
smoking-rooms? Why, I would allow--yes, I would allow a halfpenny pipe!"
"Have you any neighbours?"
"Oh, we don't visit much. There are the Bourjots at Sannois, we go there
sometimes."
"Ah, the Bourjots! But, here, there cannot be any one to visit."
"Oh, there's the curé. Ha! ha! the first time he dined with us he drank
the water in his finger-bowl! Oh, I ought not to tell you that, it's too
bad of me--and he's so kind. He's always bringing me flowers."
"You ride, don't you, mademoiselle? That must be a delightful recreation
for you."
"Yes, I love riding. It is my one pleasure. It seems to me that I could
not do without that. What I like above everything is hunting. I was
brought up to that in the part of the world where papa used to live. I'm
desperately fond of it. I was seven hours one day in my saddle without
dismounting."
"Oh, I know what it is--I go hunting every year in the Perche with M. de
Beaulieu's hounds. You've heard of his pack, perhaps; he had them over
from England. Last year we had three splendid runs. By-the-bye, you have
the Chantilly meets near here."
"Yes, I go with papa, and we never miss one. When we were all together
at the last meet there were quite forty horses, and you know how it
excites them to be together. We started off at a gallop, and you can
imagine how delightful it was. It was the day we had such a magnificent
sunset in the pool. Oh, the fresh air, and the wind blowing through my
hair, and the dogs and the bugles and the trees flying along before
you--it makes you feel quite intoxicated! At such moments I'm so brave,
oh, so brave!"
"Only at such moments, mademoiselle?"
"Well--yes--only on horseback. On foot, I own, I am very frightened at
night; then, too, I don't like thunder at all--and--well, I'm very
delighted that we shall be three persons short for dinner this evening."
"But why, mademoiselle?"
"We should have been thirteen! I should have done the meanest things for
the sake of getting a fourteenth--as you would have seen. Ah, here comes
my brother with Denoisel; they'll bring us the boat. Do look how
beautiful it all is from here, just at this time!"
She glanced round, as she spoke, at the Seine, the river banks on each
side, and the sky. Small clouds were sporting and rolling along in the
horizon. They were violet, gray, and silvery, just tipped with flashes
of white, which looked like the foam of the sea touching the lower part
of the sky.
Above them rose the heavens infinite and blue, profound and clear,
magnificent and just turning paler as they do at the hour when the
stars are beginning to kindle behind the daylight. Higher up than all
hung two or three clouds stretching over the landscape, heavy-looking
and motionless.
An immense light fell over the water, lying dormant here, flashing
there, making the silvery streaks in the shadow of the boats tremble,
touching up a mast or a rudder, or resting on the orange-coloured
handkerchief or pink jacket of a washerwoman. The country, the outskirts
of the town, and the suburbs all met together on both sides of the
river. There were rows of poplar trees to be seen between the houses,
which were few and far between, as at the extreme limit of a town.
Then there were small, tumble-down cottages, inclosure's planked round,
gardens, green shutters, wine-trade signs painted in red letters, acacia
trees in front of the doors, old summer arbors giving way on one side,
bits of walls dazzlingly white, then some straight rows of
manufactories, brick buildings with tile and zinc-covered roofs, and
factory bells. Smoke from the various workshops mounted straight upward
and the shadow of it fell in the water like the shadows of so many
columns.
On one stack was written "Tobacco," and on a plaster façade could be
read "Doremus Labiche, Boats for Hire."
Over a canal which was blocked up with barges, a swing-bridge lifted
its two black arms in the air. Fishermen were throwing and drawing in
their lines. The sound of wheels could be heard, carts were coming and
going. Towing-ropes scraped along the road, which was hard, rough,
black, and dyed all colours by the unloading of coal, mineral refuse,
and chemicals.
From the candle, glucose, and fecula manufactories and sugar-refining
works which were scattered along the quay, surrounded by patches of
verdure, there was a vague odour of tallow and sugar which was carried
away by the emanations from the water and the smell of tar. The noise
from the foundries and the whistle of steam engines kept breaking the
silence of the river.
It was like Asnières, Saardam, and Puteaux combined, one of those
Parisian landscapes on the banks of the Seine such as Hervier paints,
foul and yet radiant, wretched yet gay, popular and full of life, where
Nature peeps out here and there between the buildings, the work and the
commerce, like a blade of grass held between a man's fingers.
"Isn't it beautiful?"
"Well, to tell the truth, I am not in raptures about it. It's
beautiful--in a certain degree."
"Oh, yes, it is beautiful. I assure you that it is very beautiful
indeed. About two years ago at the Exhibition there was an effect of
this kind. I don't remember the picture exactly, but it was just this.
There are certain things that I feel----"
"Ah, you have an artistic temperament, mademoiselle."
"Oh!" exclaimed the young girl, with a comic intonation, plunging
forthwith into the water. When she appeared again she began to swim
towards the boat which was advancing to meet her. Her hair had come
down, and was all wet and floating behind her. She shook it, sprinkling
the drops of water all round.
Evening was drawing near and rosy streaks were coming gradually into the
sky. A breath was stirring over the river, and at the tops of the trees
the leaves were quivering. A small windmill, which served for a sign
over the door of a tavern, began to turn round.
"Well, Renée, how have you enjoyed the water?" asked one of the rowers
as the young girl reached the steps placed at the back of the boat.
"Oh, very much, thanks, Denoisel," she answered.
"You are a nice one," said the other man, "you swim out so far--I began
to get uneasy. And what about Reverchon? Ah, yes, here he is."